Requiem for a Dying Ocean XR at NGV

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As planned, I arrived this morning outside the NGV to join Extinction Rebellion members protesting again the destruction of our oceans.

 

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What wasn't planned was the rain that began tipping down on performers, protestors and most importantly my camera. But, saturated as we all rapidly became, nothing was going to stop us. The stakes are just too high. As the Extinction Rebellion pamphlet explains:

'Life began in the oceans, and they are critical to continued life on earth. They regulate our climate and weather patterns and provide 50% of the world's oxygen. But the climate crisis is destroying our oceans. Ocean warming, acidification, sea level rise, overfishing, shipping and deep sea mining mean that around one third of reef-building corals and marine mammals are facing extinction. When our oceans die, so do we. Join the Rebellion.' 

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Protestors stood opposite each other rhythmically swinging plastic 'waves' up and down, but as the rain increased I began to wonder if they would soon be redundant -we would have waves for real. Which is of course exactly what is happening to our NSW neighbours, as they suffer a catastrophe no doubt exacerbated by climate change.  

The one person already reconciled to getting drenched, who knew enough to bring a change of clothes, was the young French horn player, who took up perhaps her most unusual performance position ever - in the moat of the NGV:

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Periodically she had to break to tip the water out of her horn, but it only momentarily stopped her enthusiastic playing:

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The Red Rebels, accompanying her from what was intended to be dry ground, as always added to the atmosphere.  

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Too soon the event was over, and immediately even the Red Rebels got caught up in every day life:

 

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As for me, on the way home on the train, I couldn't stop thinking about the human relationship with water. We can be terrified of it, desperate for it, 60% of the human body is composed of it. Yet I for one in the past had pretty much taken it for granted.  But that time is over. Now the oceans need us: 

'The oceans are rising and so are we'!